An article on the front of the business section in today's Times runs under the headline, "Suit Charges Three Credit Ratings Agencies With Fraud in Bear Stearns Case."
It reports:
"We sold our soul to the devil for revenue," a Moody's employee said in an internal document.
Oddly, the Times article does not make any mention of the fact that Moody's largest shareholder, according to Yahoo! Finance, is Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, with, as of June 30, 2013, a stake of roughly 11.5% worth roughly $1.5 billion. Mr. Buffett recently boasted to CNBC about his return on the investment: "We're selling Moody's at six times what we paid."
So Mr. Buffett's Berkshire made a 600% profit on its billion-dollar-plus stake in a company getting sued for fraud that has, as the Times puts it, "come under widespread criticism in the wake of the financial crisis." If it were some right-wing billionaires, like the Koch brothers, who had done this deal instead of St. Warren of Omaha, you think maybe the Times would have seen fit to mention their role?